Aug 29, 2014 02:51 PM EDT By Russell Westerholm, UniversityHerald Reporter

Iceland's Bardarbunga volcano is experiencing a magma eruption, though there are no ash or dust emissions in the air, the Meteorological Office has confirmed.

According to BBC News, the Met Office said the new fissure is about a half-mile long and lies 5.5 miles north of the Bardarbunga glacier. The lava came out of the fissure late Thursday night and continued into Friday.

Bardarbunga is part of a major system of volcanoes beneath the Vatnajokull ice cap in the middle of Iceland. The Icelandic Department of Civil Protection said the fissure formed between the Dyngjujokull Glacier and the Askja volcano.

The Met Office also lowered the aerospace warning level from red, the highest possible, to orange, meaning airlines may still fly in the air space above the volcano.

"It's mostly effusive; there's no ash in the air, and not even in the vicinity," Bjorn Oddsson, a geophysicist from Iceland's Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management, told BBC News. "So mostly lava is pouring out of the craters right now and the only flight restriction is over the area. All airports are open, and things are quite in control."

The Met Office has been closely monitoring the volcano system with Eyjafjallajokull volcano's 2010 eruption on their mind, Reuters reported. The volcano spewed ash and dust into the air and grounded 100,000 European flights for nearly a week.

"No volcanic ash has been detected with the radar system at the moment... Seismic eruption tremor is low indicating effusive eruption without significant explosive activity," the National Crisis Coordination Center said in a statement.

When the eruption began, the Met Office did briefly raise the aerospace warning level to red, but the eruption may even be safe enough to view from a distance. David Rothery, a professor of Planetary Geosciences at The Open University, told the Washington Post the eruption is not a good or bad sign.

"If this eruption persists it could become a tourist attraction, as it will be relatively safe to approach, although the area is remote," he said. "This event should not be seen as 'relieving the pressure' on Bardarbunga itself, nor is it a clear precursor sign of an impending Bardarbunga eruption."

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